The sandwich has become one of the food staples that keeps us going. In fact there are places to get great sandwiches and subs all over the world. Places like Bob's Pantry in Highland Park and Ravinia Illinois - a famous Ravinia Deli.

The sandwich goes back at least three hundred years. Today a typical sandwich consists of two pieces of bread with some kind of meat or spread in between, but early sandwiches were often quite a bit different. The modern sandwich owes a lot to what we now usually call a "wrap". We have records of an ancient Jewish food preparation consisting of Paschal lamb wrapped between two pieces of flat unleavened bread eaten during Passover.

On the other hand, some of the earliest sandwiches seemed to be open faced sandwiches. Before the 1800's many taverns would use slabs of old stale bread instead of plates What taverns did was slice bread thinly and place it on the table. This bread was often referred to as trenchers. It would sop up the juices of the meal. After the main meal was finished the trencher was either eaten by the diner or given to the dogs hovering nearby.

The word "sandwich" comes from the mid to late 1700s because the 4th Earl of Sandwich would often order his valet to bring him his food in a manner that allowed him to carry on with other activities. More often than not this consisted of meat between two pieces of bread. This allowed him to continue working at his desk or playing cribbage with his friends without getting his hands greasy by having to handle meat directly.

Others in fashionable London eventually started asking for "the same as Sandwich". Eventually the name caught on to describe the increasingly popular "finger food" that could be eaten without having to handle the wide variety of fillings that could be stuffed between two slices of bread.

By the 1800's a sandwich usually meant a piece or several pieces of cold meat slapped in between two pieces of bread. Today there are many varieties of sandwiches, and the sandwich has become one of the most popular fast food alternatives available to billions of people around the world.

Today's sandwiches have grown from being just meat in between bread. Now we have a much broader range of sandwiches of different kinds - from fast food hamburgers to submarines and Italian sandwiches. These different varieties usually substitute a special bun for the classic two slices of bread. We now also add many different kinds of condiments and toppings to them. The most common condiments include lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, pickles, mustard, relish, ketchup and many more. These are just a very few of what is out there to use to create your own masterpiece.

These days there are also hundreds of different types of meats and sandwich fillers that one can add to them as well. When you walk into a carry out restaurant or deli store you order exactly what you want on that sandwich. Some restaurants have even created hot versions of sandwiches. These are much tastier than ones in the 1800's.

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